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I am Temn yr Astok, and at this late date it does not matter who my parents were, or who sponsored their marriage. I am the Astok great-clan, pure and simple, except for a few rivalrous upstarts.

There are days I envy the Immortal of T-7, who can order assassinations at will. Our ancestors went through a period where that was customary, and then the practice was banned. Karis is nominally a republic, though the great-clans are the more important pieces on the board.

Not as important as they ought to be, but that is another story. That takes us out beyond Karis, where I have now sent my faithful emissary, Iric Desnaray yr Astok. I created him, and he has the wit to know it, and obeys me.

***

Excerpt from “Notes for the Memoirs of the First Galactic Emperor,” in Tales from the Inhabited Worlds.

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